Saturday, February 23, 2013

Turkey tribe news

Life seems to be pretty routine in the wooded lot. I go out and feed the eleven turkeys at sunrise when they descend from the top of the cottonwood tree. They make little clucking sounds when they see me come out of the building carrying the big black bowl of food. I've been giving them a mixture of cracked corn (I just bought two more 50-pound bags) bird seed and bread crumbs twice a day. I occasionally add some oats, raisins or chopped apple.

I thought my little flock was all the turkeys in the area. Yesterday afternoon, four older tom turkeys showed up while they were gone. The toms were earnestly displaying their tails and doing a dance as they circled each other. They would stop all at once, stretch their necks out and gobble furiously and then resume the dance.It's really funny to watch. After half an hour, they all left. They worry me because I know they can be mean.

(Older tom turkeys have a long fleshy flap called a snood in addition to the bright red wattle. Young toms just have a small protrusion. Google image)

The regular flock consists of six females and four young males plus Priscilla, the small female who joined the flock late in the fall. The young males will do some displaying off and on. They flip up their tails and spread their wings and dance in a circle. They even do it on the most bitter cold mornings! The six females just roost in the branches of the fallen tree with their backs turned toward them, conspicuously ignoring them. Priscilla always roosts by herself on a fallen tree farther away.

(Image from Google)
I wonder what will happen when Spring comes and all those randy males are looking for mates. I hope they all go off into the woods to raise their families. I sometimes think that I may have gotten myself into a real pickle if they all want to come back next fall.

But then again, I think about Priscilla and maybe by next fall she will have her own little flock and won't be the outsider anymore.

15 comments:

I can tell you tales how all of a sudden we were feeding about 100 Canadian Geese, Mallard and Wood ducks, and a swan or two after starting to feed a few geese that came to our pond. Word travels of the generous humans that are out there! It is fun to watch them and know they love coming around, XOXO

When I was a sprog we lived in a zoo in Norfolk for the best part of a year. The zoo had an enormous resident turkey who had the run of the place and he was evil! I remember once my mother and I getting besieged at home by him - Mum had to distract him while I climbed out of a back window and went for the zoo-owner's son, the only human who could intimidate the turkey!

This is precious. I don't have turkeys, but I do have a hodgepodge of birds that descend upon my back yard when ever I put bird seed out.

If I flock of turkeys DID show up, I'm not sure what I'd do. I suppose I'd toss out some extra handfuls...and insure them that, as long as they're gone by November, they won't end up on the Thanksgiving table :)

I need to get some cracked corn so our resident turkeys stop eating all my gourmet bird seed! :) But they are so much fun to watch. I don't often see the males in full display, but when they do it, it's so imrpessive!

About Me

I'm a big fan of my home state of Minnesota, especially because all of my kids and grandkids live here. I'm retired but keep busy with puttering, volunteering and writer's groups. I have three well-loved kitties who keep me smiling. I am surrounded by trees and wildlife even though I live within a few miles (as the crow flies) of the state capitol building in downtown St Paul. This keeps me quite contented.